Tolstoy identifies the impression of art—namely, “infection”—as a key condition of good art. Infection means that the artist conveys emotions directly experienced through their work, allowing the audience to empathize by feeling the artist’s emotions and internalizing them. This proper emotion, evoked through infection, fosters a unified feeling that forms the basis of fraternity, which Tolstoy emphasized. From his perspective, good art must create a sense of brotherhood among humans to achieve unity. To accomplish this, genuine empathy is essential. True empathy occurs when one sincerely communicates personal experience to others, and such empathy becomes the foundation for social cohesion. In short, the common denominator and key link between Tolstoy’s aesthetics and ethics is empathy.

What troubled Tolstoy was that bad art undermines the bonds between humans. He believed that art damages human affection and drifts away from morality because of the kind of beauty it pursues. The negative meaning of beauty he perceived—namely, hedonistic beauty—hinders human unity and only satisfies selfish passions and desires. Since he thought that goodness could restrain the negative effects of beauty, the more people become obsessed with beauty, the further they stray from goodness.

Therefore, in his view, art must be recognized as a means of communication between humans to correct the immoral and negative roles of art. In other words, the content art should embody is the everyday lives of humans and the universal emotions those lives evoke, because such universal emotions serve as the foundation of human unity. The art Tolstoy aspired to conveys emotions that overcome individual selfish desires and evokes a unifying feeling that transcends social classes.

    He emphasized not only brotherhood but also genuine art itself. Tolstoy criticized art that is faithful to falsehood and deceit concealed under the name of art. He held that falsehood and deceit arise from pretending to have experienced something one has not. Since artists create works based on plagiarism, imitation, trickery, or merely for entertainment, they drift away from authenticity. Art is encouraged by the professionalization of artists, art criticism, and art schools. The common point among these three is the craft of imitation that makes one mistakenly believe they have experienced what they have not. He insisted that one must never imitate emotions that one has not experienced.

For him, good art must evoke not reason but life-related emotions that contain authenticity. Good art should neither be subordinate to beauty nor serve as a vehicle for conveying ideas. Art that transcends beauty and ideas makes human unity possible. In other words, genuine emotions—rather than beauty or ideas—are what make human unity possible.

Tolstoy believed that the authenticity of emotions and their contribution to humanity’s happiness are determined by the contemporary religious consciousness. He identified two emotions that unite all people and serve as the subjects of art: one is the religious awareness of universal brotherhood, and the other is the everyday, common emotions everyone experiences in life.

Therefore, Tolstoy stressed that good art is that which provides emotions for human unity. However, this raises the question: must unity be achieved through emotions rather than reason? Philosophers have long regarded humans as rational beings who must control emotions through reason. Regarding this, David Hume acknowledged reason as a contemplative faculty but did not see it as the chief motivator of action. That is, reason itself cannot generate any desire and thus cannot cause any action. He also stated that reason is a value-neutral capacity unable to distinguish good from evil. Hume argued that emotions, not reason, are the root of morality—a view that aligns with Tolstoy’s. Hume said morality arises from moral sentiment, which enables human unity where reason alone cannot. Humans can empathize with others’ feelings, understand them, and ultimately become one with them. Similarly, what Tolstoy emphasizes is precisely this unity within moral feelings—that is, empathy.

Tolstoy believed reason cannot unite humans; only moral emotions can. He argued that art must induce moral feelings that make unity possible within those emotions. Summarized as a process of creating good art based on his view, it goes as follows:

– The artist’s religious and moral awareness  

– Emotions arising from the artist’s actual experience  

– Transmission of moral feelings through the artist’s creation  

– The audience’s empathy with the artist’s moral feelings

As reason is increasingly emphasized and scientific and technological civilization advances, more people become selfish and calculating, leading to isolated lives disconnected from others. In this context, Tolstoy focused on the role of emotions in linking humans together. He believed that brotherhood and universal emotions could unite humanity and hoped art would fulfill this role. In conclusion, for Tolstoy, good art is that which can evoke a feeling of unity through genuine empathy.

Summary

An artist must embody genuine emotions in art, and these emotions should be infectious and spread to inspire brotherhood. Therefore, expressing or imitating falsehoods or things one does not truly know to pursue beauty is insincere and wrong. For unity, the artist must put authentic emotions into their art. Reason is impractical in motivating unity, but emotion triggers it. However, such emotions must be genuine, universal, and morally righteous.